Pakistan's information technology (IT) and IT enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances have surged to $550.503 million at a growth rate of 24.71 percent during the first six months of the fiscal year 2019-2020 (July-December), compared to $441.435 million during the same period last year.
The spokesperson for Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication said that the ministry was making special efforts to promote IT exports and encourage IT companies.
Sharing performance report of the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), an organisation under Ministry of IT and Telecommunication, the official maintained that IT and ITeS export remittances had surged.
The number of PSEB registered IT and ITeS companies have increased to 2,163 as of 30th December 2019 compared to 1,873 valid registrations as of December 2018 at growth rate of 15.5 percent.
The import of mobile phones increased by 79.46 percent during the first seven months of the current financial year (2019-2020) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $760.582 million during July-January (2019-2020) as compared to $423.818 million during July-January (2018-2019), showing a growth of 79.46 percent, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
On a year-on-year basis, the import of mobile phones witnessed a growth of 141.65 percent in January 2019, as compared to last year.
The imports during January 2020 were $144.437 million as against $59.77 million in January 2019.
On a month-on-month basis, the import of mobile phones witnessed an increase of 22.73 percent during January 2020, as compared to $117.682 million during December 2019.
Overall, telecom imports saw an increase of 31.36 percent during July-January 2019-2020 as compared to last year.
Total imports were recorded at $1.029 billion during this period compared to $783.453 million during the same period of last year.
Telecom imports stood at $184.474 million in January 2020 as compared to $161.895 million during December 2019 registering a growth of 13.95 percent.
Other telecom apparatus imports witnessed a decline of over 25.33 percent in July-January 2019-2020 as it stood at $268.546 million as against $359.635 million during the same period last year.
When compared to December 2019, other telecom apparatus imports registered a decline of 9.45 percent and remained at $40.037 million in January 2020 compared to $44.213 million in December 2019.
Telecom experts are linking the phenomenal growth in mobile imports to the implementation of "device identification registration and blocking system" (DIRBS).
According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) it has blocked a total of 50 million devices since implementation of the DIRBS.
According to the PTA, this includes 32 million GSMA valid and 18 million non-standard i.e. non-compliant devices.
Such devices were brought into Pakistan through grey channels causing security issues and revenue loss to the Government of Pakistan.
Since implementation of DIRBS, mobile broadband (BB) penetration has increased from 51.8 million subscribers in January, 2018, to 76.8 million in November, 2019, showing an increase of 25 million due to increased usage of smart phones.
The total cellular mobile subscribers reached 165.4 million by the end of November 2019.
As per DIRBS regulations, all devices operating on mobile networks within Pakistan as of 15th January, 2019, were registered.
Devices with programmed IMEI, which were not as per GSMA standard operating on mobile networks as of 15th January, 2019, were paired/linked with the mobile number being used.
According to the Ministry, the PSEB facilitated five IT companies for attending Canada-Pakistan ICT Forum, held in Toronto, Canada from September 23-27, 2019, besides facilitating participation of 20 IT companies in Pakistan Tech Summit 2019 in Norway, on September 25 last year.
The PSEB organised participation of Pakistan's IT companies participation at China Hi-Tech Fair 2019 held at Shenzhen, China on November 14-17 2019.
It also facilitated participation of Pakistan's IT companies in Arabnet 2019, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 10-11 last year.
The PSEB organised participation of 20 IT companies in the ITCN Asia 2019 held in Karachi in September.
The PSEB also organised Commercial Counselors Training session at the PITAD in October last year to apprise them about the facts and potential of Pakistan's IT industry in order to solicit their efforts for projecting Pakistan's IT industry as viable and feasible outsourcing destination in key international markets.
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